Best of Artemis, week ending 31st January 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 31st January 2016, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 31st January 2016:

1. Credit Suisse explores using ILS for operational risk insurance
   Investment banking group Credit Suisse has turned to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as it looks to secure a source of capital market investor backed, fully-collateralised insurance and reinsurance protection to cover its operational risks.

2. AIG to expand use of reinsurance to improve performance
   Insurance firm AIG has highlighted the increasing use of reinsurance transactions as one of the ways it will seek to improve its performance, in order to return capital to shareholders and as it hopes to avoid being broken up.

3. Re/insurer reserves releases to shrink, threatens earnings: Morgan Stanley
   Reserve releases for property & casualty insurance and reinsurance companies are expected to shrink over the next few years, with what was 15% of operating income on average falling to 11%, presenting a real risk to P&C re/insurer earnings, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

4. Leadenhall launches UCITS cat bond fund, ILS assets pass $2.4bn
   Specialist insurance and reinsurance linked investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP has launched its first UCITS investment fund towards the end of 2015, helping to take its total ILS assets under management to over $2.4 billion.

5. Is the re/insurance industry really prepared for a large tail event?
   It’s been questioned whether the insurance and reinsurance sector is ready for a significant tail event that could cause losses of $150 billion or more, or if the industry is too focused on being ready for the next Katrina.

6. Predictions for 2016: Bill Dubinsky, Head of ILS, Willis Capital Markets & Advisory
   The fifth in our series of articles featuring leading figures in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance on the market as we move into 2016 features Bill Dubinsky, Head of ILS at Willis Capital Markets & Advisory.

7. Aon ILS Indices outperform all fixed-income benchmarks in 2015
   In 2015 the Aon ILS Indices, which track the performance of investment baskets of catastrophe bonds, all outperformed a number of comparable fixed income benchmarks, as well as beating the S&P 500 Index, the latest report from Aon Securities shows.

8. December reserving hits ILS funds. 2015 average ILS fund return 4.22%
   The average return of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds in December was just 0.07%, as the severe weather events in the month and year hit private ILS and collateralised reinsurance deals. Meanwhile the full-year 2015 average ILS fund return managed just 4.22%.

9. Predictions for 2016: Luca Albertini, CEO, Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP
   The sixth in this series of articles featuring the thoughts of leading figures in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance on the market as we move into 2016 features Luca Albertini, CEO of insurance linked securities investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP.

10. As ILS investors seek yield, focus on higher-quality risks emerges: GC Securities
    As investors in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds become increasingly willing to assume more risk, in exchange for a higher yielding investment opportunity in reinsurance risk, this presents “an interesting value proposition to sponsors” according to GC Securities.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 27 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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Artemis’ Q4 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Outright market growth continues

We’ve now published our Q4 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2015, looking at the $1.525 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2015. The report also includes a review of the full year 2015 issuance and commentary from co-editor GC Securities.

Download your copy here.